The Overseas Highway is a 113 mile (181.9 km) highway carrying the U.S. Route 1 (US 1) through Florida Keys. Mostly built on the former railroad overseas, the Key West Extension of the East Coast Railway of Florida. Completed in 1912, the Overseas Railway was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in a 1935 Labor Day Storm. The Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the destroyed section, leaving the remaining road and bridge bridges for sale to the state of Florida for $ 640,000.
Since 1950, the Overseas Highway has been restored to the coastal main highway between the cities of Miami and Key West, which offers travelers exotic paths through tropical savanna environments and access to the largest coral reefs in the US mainland. Many exotic animals such as American Crocodile and Key Deer inhabit the tropical islands of the Florida Keys.
Video Overseas Highway
Histori
While Overseas Highway currently runs along the overseas railway before, some of the highways come into existence with different alignments while the railroads are still operating. The concept of Overseas Roads began with Miami Motor Club in 1921. The 1920s Florida boom was underway and the club wanted to attract tourists to easily reach the fishing grounds, which can only be reached by boat or train at that time. The explosion of land also attracted real estate enthusiasts who were looking for vehicle access to the upper button where there are thousands of hectares of undeveloped land. The completion of the railroads further proved the highway through the key was feasible.
The construction of the original Overseas Highway, designated as State Road 4A (an extension of the route running from Miami to Homestead), lasted for much of the mid-1920s. Officially opened for traffic on January 25, 1928, the original highway is in two segments at its greatest level. One segment ran from the mainland via Card Sound Road to Key Largo and extended as far as Lower Matecumbe Key, while the segment at the bottom key was from No Name Key to Key West. The car ferry service connects a 41-mile gap between Matecumbe Down and No Name Keys. State Road 4A mostly ran along the Overseas Railroad at the top of the key but at the bottom lock, it follows a path that is much different from the current railroad and highway. The ferry landing at No Name Key lies at the end of what is now Watson Boulevard, which carries State Road 4A in No Name Key and Big Pine Key before crossing over to the Little Torch Key. At Little Torch Key, turn south and rejoin the train. It will continue along the north side of the railroad to Upper Sugarloaf Key, where it turns south and runs along the route as County Roads 939 and 939A above Sugarloaf Key and Saddlebunch Keys. From Saddlebunch Keys, State Road 4A crossed to Geiger Key, continuing what is now Geiger Road and Boca Chica Road. At Boca Chica Key, the plane followed the coastline south of the Key West Naval Air Station runway to Boca Chica Beach before crossing into Stock Island. On Stock Island, it follows Maloney Avenue and MacDonald Avenue where he rejoined the Outer Railway to Key West. Most of the State Road 4A bridges under the Lock are wooden constructions and have been used in the early 1920s.
By the early 1930s it was clear that ferries were insufficient for the key travel needs, and Monroe County and the State Road Department began to make plans to connect the two sections of State Road 4A to create a continuous highway. In 1931, the ferry will also serve a 13 mile road built through Marathon on Vaca Keys with terminals at Hog and Grassy Keys. In 1933, the state legislature created the Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District to seek federal funding to extend the highway. Funding is extremely rare because the country is in the midst of the Great Depression, but funding will eventually come through the Federal Emergency Assistance Administration, part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hundreds of disgruntled World War I veterans seeking early welfare bonus payouts were used for construction on roads and bridges as part of government aid programs.
Construction on the bridge connecting the Key Matecumbe Down and Long Key was underway as Category 5 Labor Day Storm hit Islamorada on September 2, 1935. The storm caused extensive damage throughout the area and destroyed many of the Outer Railways in the top lock. Of the more than 400 deaths from typhoons, more than half are veterans and their families. Their deaths caused anger and allegations of mismanagement that led to Congressional inquiry. Just west of Lower Matecumbe Key on Mile Marker 73 on the current highway, eight concrete bridge docks and a small dredger island are vesteran remnants of work. The dredged island is now known as the Veteran Key and the dock remains as a tribute to the veterans with a memorial plaque on Craig Key.
After the storm, the East Coast East Coast of Florida was financially unable to rebuild the damaged parts of the Overseas Railway. Seizing a rare opportunity, the state buys all railroad rights and the remaining infrastructure for $ 640,000. The Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District abandoned the original highway plan and created a new plan to build a highway on the old railroad from Matecumbe Key to the Little Torch Key, which effectively connects two segments of State Road 4A. Railway bridges, which withstand hurricanes and are in good condition, are fitted with new two-lane concrete surfaces for car use. In the case of Honda Bahia Rail Bridge, which is a truss bridge, a concrete road surface is built on a frame. Conversion of railway bridges to car use is achieved by Cleary Brothers Construction Co. from West Palm Beach. The road portion was burdened until April 15, 1954; the toll gate is located on Big Pine Key and Lower Matecumbe Key. Pigeon Key, about the midpoint of the Seven Mile Bridge, serves as a base for "Overseas Roads and Toll District." The number of tolls for cars is $ 1, plus 25 cents per passenger. The full highway from mainland to Key West was officially opened for traffic on March 29, 1938 and once completed, the route became the southernmost segment of the US. Highway 1 , which was previously terminated in Miami (State Road 4A will remain as a concealment until 1945 Florida State Road numbering, when the appointment is hidden into State Road 5). President Franklin D. Roosevelt toured the street in 1939.
At the moment, the Overseas Highway only ran along the old railway routes in the central lock; the original highway segment is still used at the top and bottom. When the United States entered World War II, the US Navy sought out road repairs to improve their access from Naval Air Station in Boca Chica Key to the mainland for national security purposes. The key segment under the 1920s is less than ideal with winding roads and rickety wooden bridges. This resulted in completing the rest of the entire key highway on the former railroad, which is already state owned and is a more direct route with a smoother curve that will allow for higher speeds. Also included in the project is the construction of a highway from Florida City to Key Largo via Jewfish Creek (known as 18-Mile Stretch). The new alignment, officially completed on May 16, 1944, shortened the route to the mainland by 17 miles. The original Sound Card Bridge was closed after the Jewfish Creek guidance was opened, and his body was later destroyed by fire (Voice Card route will be restored as a secondary route in 1969 with the opening of the current bridge). Currently, some of the original road segments remain as side and front roads for current roads.
The original highway through Key Largo and Tavernier will once again be part of the Overseas Highway in the early 1970s when it expanded into a four-lane highway. Here, the northern path ran along the original highway route and the southern route along the railroad route, which is mainly seen in the area where the route is divided into two one-way streets. The widening was the beginning of a much larger project to rebuild the Outer Highway, which included replacing old and worn railroad bridges with more modern bridges; some of which can accommodate more than two lanes of traffic. These include the Seven Mile Bridge, Bahia Honda Bridge and the Long Key Bridge (although these three original bridges are no longer open to vehicular traffic, except for parts of the Seven Mile Bridge, they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and are currently used as fishing pier). More modern bridges were completed in the early 1980s. In recent years, Pigeon Key was used by the University of Miami as an oceanographic laboratory, but the current attempt to restore the buildings on the island has resulted in the formation of a railway museum there. The newer Seven Mile Bridge does not have direct access to Pigeon Key; people going there must walk 2.2 miles (3.5 km) from the original Seven Mile Bridge from the north end of Knight's Key, take a shuttle bus, or take a boat to get to the island.
Maps Overseas Highway
Mile markers
Locations along the Overseas Highway from Key West to Key Largo are usually provided as mile markers . The Florida Transportation Department (FDOT) maintains mile markers every mile along the highway. Numbering starts in Key West, and rises east and northeast along the highway above the lock. Businesses along the highway begin to register their locations with markers, adding decimal sections to better pinpoint locations between mile marker marks. Outside of Key West and Marathon City, the street address along the highway is based on mile markers, using four to six digits (without a decimal point); the numbering pattern is as follows:
- The first three (or four) digits indicate an approximate mile marker; the first two digits (or three) show the miles while the last digit shows the nearest 0.1 (one tenth of a mile)
- The last two digits indicate a specific address; the even digit shows the address on the Atlantic Ocean side while the odd number indicates the address on the Gulf side of Florida/Gulf of Mexico
For example, the Tropical Research Laboratory of Mote Marine Laboratory has a physical address of 24244 Overseas Highway. The first three digits indicate that it is a close-range 24.2 (corresponding to an address in Summerland Key), while the last two digits indicate that it is located on the Atlantic Ocean side of the highway.
Trajectory
In 2001, the Monroe County Commission, Greenways' Office of Environmental Protection in Florida and the Strip, and FDOT entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to create the Overseas Heritage Trail Florida Trail (FKOHT). This trail will be a world class multi-function bike and pedestrian facility that will traverse the Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West. Upon completion, FKOHT will include an integrated system of educational kiosks, picnic areas by the wayside, beautiful scenery, fishing docks, water access points, and bike paths and jogging. The development of the trail will provide mechanisms for the preservation and use of the historic Flagler Railway Bridge, 23 of which are still present and still largely intact. There are alternatives for track alignment, including cutting down 22-foot (6.7 m) roads, 1940s road to 12 foot (3.7 m) spandrel width, or using 22 feet (6.7 m) Ã, m width) highways, especially in multi-use areas. In all cases, the original bridgework will be repaired or rebuilt, and the breaks made during the 1980s and 1990s of the fishing dock conversion will be reconnected. Where the original path no longer exists, a trail will be temporarily cantilevered on the side of the current US 1 highway bridge, until a new 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) trail bridge path can be constructed. New sections will be built to match the historical character of the original bridge.
In popular culture
One of the Wacky Races animated TVs is the Hi-Way Overseas Competition , first aired on December 28, 1968, on CBS, covering the true route of Key Largo to Key West. While Long Key is correctly portrayed, most of the keys are fictionalized, and Sombrero Key is actually five miles south of the highway in open water, according to the Florida Keys-East map.
The Overseas Highway is depicted in a sketch by American artist Ralston Crawford.
The scene from James Cameron thriller 1994 True Lies was filmed on the part of the old Seven Mile Bridge. No part of the bridge was destroyed during the filming; on the contrary, the 80-foot bridge model built from Sugarloaf Key is blown up for iconic sights.
Large intersection
Mileposts are taken from US 1, which starts about 4 miles (6.4 km) south at the intersection with Whitehead and Fleming streets of Key West. The whole route in Monroe County.
References
External links
- Historical American Engineering (HAER) No.Ã, FL-2, "Seven Mile Bridge, Connecting Florida Keys, Knight Key, Monroe County, FL"
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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